Wire rope



@ec, 9, 1958 G. F. DHETZ WIRE ROPE Filed Feb. 9, 1955 invenl' om @ERHARD FRITZ DIETZ liit States Patent WIRE ROPE Gerhard Fritz Dietz, Monchroden, Coburg, Germany Application February 9, 1955, Serial No. 487,135

Claims priority, application Germany February 10, 1954 6 Claims. (Cl. 57147) This invention relates to wire ropes, and more particularly to a wire rope with a special arrangement of strands and wires used therein.

In wire ropes, especially in those having a hemp core, usually a reduction of the diameter occurs in that the hemp core gets pressed together under the influence of the concentrically and inwardly directed tendency of motion of the hemp core enclosing rope elements. This.

in return causes the rope elements, i. e. the strands, to come into close lateral contact with each other so that the wires of the strands rub against each other at their contact-zones, whereby they will get damaged in a comparatively short time. Therefore, it has always been tried to avoid the lateral contacting of the strands as far as possible.

The object of the present invention is to provide a wire rope which, in contrast to the known wire ropes, is so constructed, that lateral contacting of the strands is purposely eifected, however, on the understanding, that this special arrangement is free from wire crossings and that the gradual reduction of the rope diameter is avoided. It is furthermore ensured by this new wire rope construction that the rope will not untwist when under load.

The principle of the present invention is to employ, contrary to the hitherto known strands with a possibly smooth profile, strands having a cross section resembling a toothed wheel, so that the circumferences of adjacent strands of a rope intersect each other in a manner similar to the circumferences of mating gears.

The toothing of the strands is preferably obtained by having the (outer) wires of each strand arranged in such a manner that the wires extending up to the circumference of the strand and the wires being set back with respect to the circumference of the strand alternate with each other. This may be accomplished by way of example in that one or several thick wires are followed by one or several thin wires, whereby all wires surround a common hemp core. The individual wires may be of various shape, for example, round wires may be followed by fiat wires. However, other cross sections of wire may also be employed, for instance, S-wire, V-wire, and elliptically profiled wire and so on. It is furthermore possible to use, for example, strands consisting of several layers of wire being made in Scale or Warrington manner. In this instance, however, every other wire of the outer layer is to be left out in order to obtain necessary gaps.

By the different kinds or arrangement of wire, alternately positioned around the core of the strands, gaps or recesses are formed in the outer areas of the strands and, if the strands are correspondingly arranged to each other, the teeth, i. e., the outwardly positioned elements of the adjacent strands, will project into said gaps or recesses.

According to another feature of the present invention the strands of the same layer are alternately laid in Langs lay and in cross lay and an even number of strands is used. Each individual strand consists of an even number of wires of which one half has a large 2,863,279 Patented Dec. 9, 1958 'the gap of another strand, which is, according to a further feature of the present invention, obtained by having the depth of the teeth of the strand (the wires in the strands) and the strands in the rope adapted to each other under consideration of deformations arising from the lay of the rope or strand. It should be noted, that the elements of the strands and the: strands themselves are subjected to ditferent moments of deformation depending upon the direction of lay, which deformations must be compensated by a correspondingly selected depth of the teeth.

It is also important that the toothed wheel-like cross sections of the cross and Langs lay strands are of such a shape, that their cross sections in the finished rope are, at least nearly, in conformity.

In general, the outer layer of strands of the rope is composed of equally sized strands, however, it is also possible to have the layer composed of alternately laid strands of larger and smaller diameters, provided that the module of the various strands is the same.

While the invention is generally thought to be applied to ropes having only one outer layer of strands, it may, nevertheless, also be applied to such ropes wherein an inner layer of strands engages the outer layer of strands in a similar manner as described above. This is illustrated in the drawings, particularly in Figure 1. In this instance it is to be observed that the cross lay and the Langs lay strands are opposite to each other.

In the wire rope according to the present invention the adjacently positioned strands engage each other and move in conformity with each other whenever the rope is moved, so that no loosening or other detrimental dislocation within the rope structure can occur, no matter whether round, fiat, sector, or other kinds of strands are employed. In any case, the circumferences of the strands or the normal cross sections of the flat strands, sector strands or the like do not merely contact each other, as is the case in the hitherto known rope constructions, but intersect each other, thus preventing any twisting of the rope when same is under load. A twist in the rope could only occur if the concentrically and inwardly pressing strands were lifted out of their mutual engagement. However, this is not possible, as the twisting moment originating from any tensile stress is only a fraction of the inwardly directed pressure.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary elevational view of a wire rope according to the invention, and

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the wire rope consisting of four strands.

The rope consists of a hemp core, not shown in the drawing, and four strands 1, 2, 3, 4. The strands 1 and 3 are laid in cross lay whereas the strands 2 and 4 are laid in Langs lay. Each strand consists of 1+8 wires with the reference numerals 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. It can be noted that the wires 6, 7, 8, 9 are comparatively thick and that the wires 10, 11, 12, 13 between them are of thinner shape and, in this specific embodiment of the invention, are formed as fiat Wires.

By this preferred arrangement a gap 14 is formed between any two thick wires so that each strand in its cross section resembles a toothed wheel. The strands are 3 laid in such a manner that, like in the case of mating gears, at the lateral contact-zones of two adjacent stands always one thick wire of one strand projects into a gap formed between two thick wires of another strand. In Fig. 2, the thick wire 8 of the strand 1 is positioned between thick wires 16' and 17 of the strand 2. with the result that the strand 1 and the strand 2 intersect each other with their respective circumstances 15 and 18. The same applies to the other strands shown in the drawing.

It will be obvious that the number of teeth and gaps of the strands may be varied and that each individual tooth may bear against one or several wires of the adjacent strand. However, this as well as any play between the teeth and gaps may be made dependent upon the special kind of use of the wire rope.

Fig. 2 shows that by way of said toothed wheel effect, it'will be absolutely impossible for the rope to untwist. Furthermore, it is absolutely impossible that the diameter of the ropeis remarkably reduced if the rope is under load.

From the above detailed description of the invention, it is believed that the construction will at once be apparent, and while there is herein shown and described a preferred embodiment of the invention, it is nevertheless to'be understood that minor changes may be made therein Without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

I claim:

1. A wire rope comprising at least one layer of strands being alternately laid in cross lay and Langs lay, each strand including an even number of wires half of which have a larger diameter than the other half and each two adjacent ones of said larger diameter Wires defining a circumferential recess with the small diameter wire therebetween, and a larger diameter wire of one of said strands engaging a circumferential recess of an adjacent strand so as to interlock the strands.

2. A wire rope as claimed in claim 1, wherein all strands have the same diameter of circumference and the same number of wires.

3. In a wire rope as claimed in claim 1, an outer layer of strands composed of wires of larger and smaller diameters which alternate with each other and have the same module.

4. A wire rope as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wires and the strands are so arranged that their pitches respond to any deformations occuring in the rope, and the wires of adjacent and engaging cross and Langs lay strands are in parallelism at their contact-zones.

5. A wire rope as claimed in claim 1, wherein several layers of strands are provided and each outer layer of strands is in a toothed wheel-like engagement with its respective adjacent inner layer of strands.

6. A wire rope comprising at least one layer of strands with an even number of strands being laid alternately in cross lay and Langs lay, each strand consisting of a plurality of regularly and alternately arranged thick and thin outer wires surrounding a common core, said outer wires being so arranged that alternately some of them extend up to an imaginary circumference of each strand and others are set back with respect to the imaginary circumference of the strand, said adjacent strands of the wire rope engaging each other in mutual relationship in the manner of gear wheels.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 171,634 Roebling Dec. 28, 1875 1,201,290 Harrison Oct. 17, 1916 1,260,582 Roebling Mar. 26, 1918 1,348,033 Moon July 27, 1920 FOREIGN PATENTS 494,752 Belgium Apr. 15, 1950 885,801 France June 7, 1943 

